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author | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-05-18 17:35:05 +0000 |
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committer | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-05-18 17:39:31 +0000 |
commit | 85c675d0d09a45a135bddd15d7b385f8758c32fb (patch) | |
tree | 76267dbc9b9a130337be3640948fe397b04ac629 /Documentation/networking/tcp_ao.rst | |
parent | Adding upstream version 6.6.15. (diff) | |
download | linux-85c675d0d09a45a135bddd15d7b385f8758c32fb.tar.xz linux-85c675d0d09a45a135bddd15d7b385f8758c32fb.zip |
Adding upstream version 6.7.7.upstream/6.7.7
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/networking/tcp_ao.rst')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/networking/tcp_ao.rst | 444 |
1 files changed, 444 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/tcp_ao.rst b/Documentation/networking/tcp_ao.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..8a58321acc --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/networking/tcp_ao.rst @@ -0,0 +1,444 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +======================================================== +TCP Authentication Option Linux implementation (RFC5925) +======================================================== + +TCP Authentication Option (TCP-AO) provides a TCP extension aimed at verifying +segments between trusted peers. It adds a new TCP header option with +a Message Authentication Code (MAC). MACs are produced from the content +of a TCP segment using a hashing function with a password known to both peers. +The intent of TCP-AO is to deprecate TCP-MD5 providing better security, +key rotation and support for variety of hashing algorithms. + +1. Introduction +=============== + +.. table:: Short and Limited Comparison of TCP-AO and TCP-MD5 + + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + | | TCP-MD5 | TCP-AO | + +======================+========================+=======================+ + |Supported hashing |MD5 |Must support HMAC-SHA1 | + |algorithms |(cryptographically weak)|(chosen-prefix attacks)| + | | |and CMAC-AES-128 (only | + | | |side-channel attacks). | + | | |May support any hashing| + | | |algorithm. | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + |Length of MACs (bytes)|16 |Typically 12-16. | + | | |Other variants that fit| + | | |TCP header permitted. | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + |Number of keys per |1 |Many | + |TCP connection | | | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + |Possibility to change |Non-practical (both |Supported by protocol | + |an active key |peers have to change | | + | |them during MSL) | | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + |Protection against |No |Yes: ignoring them | + |ICMP 'hard errors' | |by default on | + | | |established connections| + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + |Protection against |No |Yes: pseudo-header | + |traffic-crossing | |includes TCP ports. | + |attack | | | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + |Protection against |No |Sequence Number | + |replayed TCP segments | |Extension (SNE) and | + | | |Initial Sequence | + | | |Numbers (ISNs) | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + |Supports |Yes |No. ISNs+SNE are needed| + |Connectionless Resets | |to correctly sign RST. | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + |Standards |RFC 2385 |RFC 5925, RFC 5926 | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + + +1.1 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) with references to RFC 5925 +---------------------------------------------------------------- + +Q: Can either SendID or RecvID be non-unique for the same 4-tuple +(srcaddr, srcport, dstaddr, dstport)? + +A: No [3.1]:: + + >> The IDs of MKTs MUST NOT overlap where their TCP connection + identifiers overlap. + +Q: Can Master Key Tuple (MKT) for an active connection be removed? + +A: No, unless it's copied to Transport Control Block (TCB) [3.1]:: + + It is presumed that an MKT affecting a particular connection cannot + be destroyed during an active connection -- or, equivalently, that + its parameters are copied to an area local to the connection (i.e., + instantiated) and so changes would affect only new connections. + +Q: If an old MKT needs to be deleted, how should it be done in order +to not remove it for an active connection? (As it can be still in use +at any moment later) + +A: Not specified by RFC 5925, seems to be a problem for key management +to ensure that no one uses such MKT before trying to remove it. + +Q: Can an old MKT exist forever and be used by another peer? + +A: It can, it's a key management task to decide when to remove an old key [6.1]:: + + Deciding when to start using a key is a performance issue. Deciding + when to remove an MKT is a security issue. Invalid MKTs are expected + to be removed. TCP-AO provides no mechanism to coordinate their removal, + as we consider this a key management operation. + +also [6.1]:: + + The only way to avoid reuse of previously used MKTs is to remove the MKT + when it is no longer considered permitted. + +Linux TCP-AO will try its best to prevent you from removing a key that's +being used, considering it a key management failure. But since keeping +an outdated key may become a security issue and as a peer may +unintentionally prevent the removal of an old key by always setting +it as RNextKeyID - a forced key removal mechanism is provided, where +userspace has to supply KeyID to use instead of the one that's being removed +and the kernel will atomically delete the old key, even if the peer is +still requesting it. There are no guarantees for force-delete as the peer +may yet not have the new key - the TCP connection may just break. +Alternatively, one may choose to shut down the socket. + +Q: What happens when a packet is received on a new connection with no known +MKT's RecvID? + +A: RFC 5925 specifies that by default it is accepted with a warning logged, but +the behaviour can be configured by the user [7.5.1.a]:: + + If the segment is a SYN, then this is the first segment of a new + connection. Find the matching MKT for this segment, using the segment's + socket pair and its TCP-AO KeyID, matched against the MKT's TCP connection + identifier and the MKT's RecvID. + + i. If there is no matching MKT, remove TCP-AO from the segment. + Proceed with further TCP handling of the segment. + NOTE: this presumes that connections that do not match any MKT + should be silently accepted, as noted in Section 7.3. + +[7.3]:: + + >> A TCP-AO implementation MUST allow for configuration of the behavior + of segments with TCP-AO but that do not match an MKT. The initial default + of this configuration SHOULD be to silently accept such connections. + If this is not the desired case, an MKT can be included to match such + connections, or the connection can indicate that TCP-AO is required. + Alternately, the configuration can be changed to discard segments with + the AO option not matching an MKT. + +[10.2.b]:: + + Connections not matching any MKT do not require TCP-AO. Further, incoming + segments with TCP-AO are not discarded solely because they include + the option, provided they do not match any MKT. + +Note that Linux TCP-AO implementation differs in this aspect. Currently, TCP-AO +segments with unknown key signatures are discarded with warnings logged. + +Q: Does the RFC imply centralized kernel key management in any way? +(i.e. that a key on all connections MUST be rotated at the same time?) + +A: Not specified. MKTs can be managed in userspace, the only relevant part to +key changes is [7.3]:: + + >> All TCP segments MUST be checked against the set of MKTs for matching + TCP connection identifiers. + +Q: What happens when RNextKeyID requested by a peer is unknown? Should +the connection be reset? + +A: It should not, no action needs to be performed [7.5.2.e]:: + + ii. If they differ, determine whether the RNextKeyID MKT is ready. + + 1. If the MKT corresponding to the segment’s socket pair and RNextKeyID + is not available, no action is required (RNextKeyID of a received + segment needs to match the MKT’s SendID). + +Q: How current_key is set and when does it change? It is a user-triggered +change, or is it by a request from the remote peer? Is it set by the user +explicitly, or by a matching rule? + +A: current_key is set by RNextKeyID [6.1]:: + + Rnext_key is changed only by manual user intervention or MKT management + protocol operation. It is not manipulated by TCP-AO. Current_key is updated + by TCP-AO when processing received TCP segments as discussed in the segment + processing description in Section 7.5. Note that the algorithm allows + the current_key to change to a new MKT, then change back to a previously + used MKT (known as "backing up"). This can occur during an MKT change when + segments are received out of order, and is considered a feature of TCP-AO, + because reordering does not result in drops. + +[7.5.2.e.ii]:: + + 2. If the matching MKT corresponding to the segment’s socket pair and + RNextKeyID is available: + + a. Set current_key to the RNextKeyID MKT. + +Q: If both peers have multiple MKTs matching the connection's socket pair +(with different KeyIDs), how should the sender/receiver pick KeyID to use? + +A: Some mechanism should pick the "desired" MKT [3.3]:: + + Multiple MKTs may match a single outgoing segment, e.g., when MKTs + are being changed. Those MKTs cannot have conflicting IDs (as noted + elsewhere), and some mechanism must determine which MKT to use for each + given outgoing segment. + + >> An outgoing TCP segment MUST match at most one desired MKT, indicated + by the segment’s socket pair. The segment MAY match multiple MKTs, provided + that exactly one MKT is indicated as desired. Other information in + the segment MAY be used to determine the desired MKT when multiple MKTs + match; such information MUST NOT include values in any TCP option fields. + +Q: Can TCP-MD5 connection migrate to TCP-AO (and vice-versa): + +A: No [1]:: + + TCP MD5-protected connections cannot be migrated to TCP-AO because TCP MD5 + does not support any changes to a connection’s security algorithm + once established. + +Q: If all MKTs are removed on a connection, can it become a non-TCP-AO signed +connection? + +A: [7.5.2] doesn't have the same choice as SYN packet handling in [7.5.1.i] +that would allow accepting segments without a sign (which would be insecure). +While switching to non-TCP-AO connection is not prohibited directly, it seems +what the RFC means. Also, there's a requirement for TCP-AO connections to +always have one current_key [3.3]:: + + TCP-AO requires that every protected TCP segment match exactly one MKT. + +[3.3]:: + + >> An incoming TCP segment including TCP-AO MUST match exactly one MKT, + indicated solely by the segment’s socket pair and its TCP-AO KeyID. + +[4.4]:: + + One or more MKTs. These are the MKTs that match this connection’s + socket pair. + +Q: Can a non-TCP-AO connection become a TCP-AO-enabled one? + +A: No: for already established non-TCP-AO connection it would be impossible +to switch using TCP-AO as the traffic key generation requires the initial +sequence numbers. Paraphrasing, starting using TCP-AO would require +re-establishing the TCP connection. + +2. In-kernel MKTs database vs database in userspace +=================================================== + +Linux TCP-AO support is implemented using ``setsockopt()s``, in a similar way +to TCP-MD5. It means that a userspace application that wants to use TCP-AO +should perform ``setsockopt()`` on a TCP socket when it wants to add, +remove or rotate MKTs. This approach moves the key management responsibility +to userspace as well as decisions on corner cases, i.e. what to do if +the peer doesn't respect RNextKeyID; moving more code to userspace, especially +responsible for the policy decisions. Besides, it's flexible and scales well +(with less locking needed than in the case of an in-kernel database). One also +should keep in mind that mainly intended users are BGP processes, not any +random applications, which means that compared to IPsec tunnels, +no transparency is really needed and modern BGP daemons already have +``setsockopt()s`` for TCP-MD5 support. + +.. table:: Considered pros and cons of the approaches + + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + | | ``setsockopt()`` | in-kernel DB | + +======================+========================+=======================+ + | Extendability | ``setsockopt()`` | Netlink messages are | + | | commands should be | simple and extendable | + | | extendable syscalls | | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + | Required userspace | BGP or any application | could be transparent | + | changes | that wants TCP-AO needs| as tunnels, providing | + | | to perform | something like | + | | ``setsockopt()s`` | ``ip tcpao add key`` | + | | and do key management | (delete/show/rotate) | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + |MKTs removal or adding| harder for userspace | harder for kernel | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + | Dump-ability | ``getsockopt()`` | Netlink .dump() | + | | | callback | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + | Limits on kernel | equal | + | resources/memory | | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + | Scalability | contention on | contention on | + | | ``TCP_LISTEN`` sockets | the whole database | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + | Monitoring & warnings| ``TCP_DIAG`` | same Netlink socket | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + | Matching of MKTs | half-problem: only | hard | + | | listen sockets | | + +----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+ + + +3. uAPI +======= + +Linux provides a set of ``setsockopt()s`` and ``getsockopt()s`` that let +userspace manage TCP-AO on a per-socket basis. In order to add/delete MKTs +``TCP_AO_ADD_KEY`` and ``TCP_AO_DEL_KEY`` TCP socket options must be used +It is not allowed to add a key on an established non-TCP-AO connection +as well as to remove the last key from TCP-AO connection. + +``setsockopt(TCP_AO_DEL_KEY)`` command may specify ``tcp_ao_del::current_key`` ++ ``tcp_ao_del::set_current`` and/or ``tcp_ao_del::rnext`` ++ ``tcp_ao_del::set_rnext`` which makes such delete "forced": it +provides userspace a way to delete a key that's being used and atomically set +another one instead. This is not intended for normal use and should be used +only when the peer ignores RNextKeyID and keeps requesting/using an old key. +It provides a way to force-delete a key that's not trusted but may break +the TCP-AO connection. + +The usual/normal key-rotation can be performed with ``setsockopt(TCP_AO_INFO)``. +It also provides a uAPI to change per-socket TCP-AO settings, such as +ignoring ICMPs, as well as clear per-socket TCP-AO packet counters. +The corresponding ``getsockopt(TCP_AO_INFO)`` can be used to get those +per-socket TCP-AO settings. + +Another useful command is ``getsockopt(TCP_AO_GET_KEYS)``. One can use it +to list all MKTs on a TCP socket or use a filter to get keys for a specific +peer and/or sndid/rcvid, VRF L3 interface or get current_key/rnext_key. + +To repair TCP-AO connections ``setsockopt(TCP_AO_REPAIR)`` is available, +provided that the user previously has checkpointed/dumped the socket with +``getsockopt(TCP_AO_REPAIR)``. + +A tip here for scaled TCP_LISTEN sockets, that may have some thousands TCP-AO +keys, is: use filters in ``getsockopt(TCP_AO_GET_KEYS)`` and asynchronous +delete with ``setsockopt(TCP_AO_DEL_KEY)``. + +Linux TCP-AO also provides a bunch of segment counters that can be helpful +with troubleshooting/debugging issues. Every MKT has good/bad counters +that reflect how many packets passed/failed verification. +Each TCP-AO socket has the following counters: +- for good segments (properly signed) +- for bad segments (failed TCP-AO verification) +- for segments with unknown keys +- for segments where an AO signature was expected, but wasn't found +- for the number of ignored ICMPs + +TCP-AO per-socket counters are also duplicated with per-netns counters, +exposed with SNMP. Those are ``TCPAOGood``, ``TCPAOBad``, ``TCPAOKeyNotFound``, +``TCPAORequired`` and ``TCPAODroppedIcmps``. + +RFC 5925 very permissively specifies how TCP port matching can be done for +MKTs:: + + TCP connection identifier. A TCP socket pair, i.e., a local IP + address, a remote IP address, a TCP local port, and a TCP remote port. + Values can be partially specified using ranges (e.g., 2-30), masks + (e.g., 0xF0), wildcards (e.g., "*"), or any other suitable indication. + +Currently Linux TCP-AO implementation doesn't provide any TCP port matching. +Probably, port ranges are the most flexible for uAPI, but so far +not implemented. + +4. ``setsockopt()`` vs ``accept()`` race +======================================== + +In contrast with TCP-MD5 established connection which has just one key, +TCP-AO connections may have many keys, which means that accepted connections +on a listen socket may have any amount of keys as well. As copying all those +keys on a first properly signed SYN would make the request socket bigger, that +would be undesirable. Currently, the implementation doesn't copy keys +to request sockets, but rather look them up on the "parent" listener socket. + +The result is that when userspace removes TCP-AO keys, that may break +not-yet-established connections on request sockets as well as not removing +keys from sockets that were already established, but not yet ``accept()``'ed, +hanging in the accept queue. + +The reverse is valid as well: if userspace adds a new key for a peer on +a listener socket, the established sockets in accept queue won't +have the new keys. + +At this moment, the resolution for the two races: +``setsockopt(TCP_AO_ADD_KEY)`` vs ``accept()`` +and ``setsockopt(TCP_AO_DEL_KEY)`` vs ``accept()`` is delegated to userspace. +This means that it's expected that userspace would check the MKTs on the socket +that was returned by ``accept()`` to verify that any key rotation that +happened on listen socket is reflected on the newly established connection. + +This is a similar "do-nothing" approach to TCP-MD5 from the kernel side and +may be changed later by introducing new flags to ``tcp_ao_add`` +and ``tcp_ao_del``. + +Note that this race is rare for it needs TCP-AO key rotation to happen +during the 3-way handshake for the new TCP connection. + +5. Interaction with TCP-MD5 +=========================== + +A TCP connection can not migrate between TCP-AO and TCP-MD5 options. The +established sockets that have either AO or MD5 keys are restricted for +adding keys of the other option. + +For listening sockets the picture is different: BGP server may want to receive +both TCP-AO and (deprecated) TCP-MD5 clients. As a result, both types of keys +may be added to TCP_CLOSED or TCP_LISTEN sockets. It's not allowed to add +different types of keys for the same peer. + +6. SNE Linux implementation +=========================== + +RFC 5925 [6.2] describes the algorithm of how to extend TCP sequence numbers +with SNE. In short: TCP has to track the previous sequence numbers and set +sne_flag when the current SEQ number rolls over. The flag is cleared when +both current and previous SEQ numbers cross 0x7fff, which is 32Kb. + +In times when sne_flag is set, the algorithm compares SEQ for each packet with +0x7fff and if it's higher than 32Kb, it assumes that the packet should be +verified with SNE before the increment. As a result, there's +this [0; 32Kb] window, when packets with (SNE - 1) can be accepted. + +Linux implementation simplifies this a bit: as the network stack already tracks +the first SEQ byte that ACK is wanted for (snd_una) and the next SEQ byte that +is wanted (rcv_nxt) - that's enough information for a rough estimation +on where in the 4GB SEQ number space both sender and receiver are. +When they roll over to zero, the corresponding SNE gets incremented. + +tcp_ao_compute_sne() is called for each TCP-AO segment. It compares SEQ numbers +from the segment with snd_una or rcv_nxt and fits the result into a 2GB window around them, +detecting SEQ numbers rolling over. That simplifies the code a lot and only +requires SNE numbers to be stored on every TCP-AO socket. + +The 2GB window at first glance seems much more permissive compared to +RFC 5926. But that is only used to pick the correct SNE before/after +a rollover. It allows more TCP segment replays, but yet all regular +TCP checks in tcp_sequence() are applied on the verified segment. +So, it trades a bit more permissive acceptance of replayed/retransmitted +segments for the simplicity of the algorithm and what seems better behaviour +for large TCP windows. + +7. Links +======== + +RFC 5925 The TCP Authentication Option + https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/pdfrfc/rfc5925.txt.pdf + +RFC 5926 Cryptographic Algorithms for the TCP Authentication Option (TCP-AO) + https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/pdfrfc/rfc5926.txt.pdf + +Draft "SHA-2 Algorithm for the TCP Authentication Option (TCP-AO)" + https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-nayak-tcp-sha2-03 + +RFC 2385 Protection of BGP Sessions via the TCP MD5 Signature Option + https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/pdfrfc/rfc2385.txt.pdf + +:Author: Dmitry Safonov <dima@arista.com> |